A planned overhaul of the second-largest crude distillation unit (CDU) at Exxon Mobil Corp’s 502,500-barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery is expected to continue for at least five weeks, said sources familiar with plant operations. The 110,000-bpd PSLA 9 CDU was shut on Feb. 11 for the overhaul, the sources said.

“The average time a unit may be down can range from several weeks to several months,” said Exxon spokeswoman Megan Manchester. “We continue to meet contractual commitments.”

In addition to PSLA 9, the refinery’s 22,500-bpd coker was shut for the work. The Baton Rouge refinery’s three CDUs do the primary refining of crude oil into feedstocks for all other production units, as well as producing unfinished motor fuels. Cokers refine residual crude oil received from distillation units into motor fuel feedstocks.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)

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